water coolers that work crews haul around with them. I could keep the temperatures in the low 60s for ales with simply swapping out ice packs twice a day. For Lagers it was much more labor-intensive, lol, but I made it work. The key was the lid ….a big plastic plant saucer with a large hole cut out for the carboy neck, one of the lids in the foreground there. I would cover the whole thing with a towel to help keep the cool in.
This is great thanks!! Trip to Home Depot tomorrow for sure. You can use these coolers for all grain sparging and mash conversion and such also, right?
I usually see all grain brewers using the big rectangular coolers for the brewing process itself. I’ve always been a BIAB (also all-grain of course)guy so never went that route.
I may have to work up some kind of all grain cooler system. Too tempting not too. I think I could make that work with my current kettle. Thanks for all the help and info yall
My first mash-tun was a 10 gallon cooler like that round one… that worked fine for many years… I did get the false bottom that fit that cooler.I see some use the mesh bag too.
Sneezles61
At one point in my brewing I used a 10 gallon round cooler as a mash/lauter tun. I discovered that a pizza pan, the ones with little holes in them fit just right for a false bottom. Drilled and put a valve near the bottom and made lots of beer with it.
Swamp cooler wise I still once in a while use a plastic bin part filled with water and swap out frozen plastic bottles of water. A little labor intensive but works in a pinch. Not ideal for lager type temps but for ales you can do 60’s.
Do like the Kviek yeast for room temp fermentation. Beer comes out crisp and no fusel alcohol I could detect. Need to experiment more with the headache part
So my plan today is to pick up a 10 gal cooler (round) and transfer my saison to another fermenter if the cooler won’t fit the fermenter I have with the spigot. I imagine it won’t. Then to keep cool, I just need the planter bottoms, a towel, and some frozen ice packs? Then i can up my game to all grain with the cooler?? So simple yet ingenious (and cost effective👍) Thanks everyone!
Right now, the primary ferment is done… best to leave this one set and finish… chilling won’t do anything, unless, you can get it down to 32*F for a week for a cold crash…
Your new gizmo will be best employed on the next brew. You’ll get the gear figured out and your brew will step up another level!
Sneezles61
So I guess my biggest worry would be the higher temp where it’s currently sitting (82 according to the strip thermo so it must be higher inside, right?). I thought I might cool it down to prevent any (more) off flavors from developing. Already tasted a little hot. Should I just bottle this mf after a week of star San clean up, and not worry about lowering temp?
From my point of view, cooling it now won’t change what’s already happened… star san and all. IF you have room in your fridge, put some foil over the top, no air locker, put it in there for a week. Afterwards, quietly move it to an area you can rack to your bottling bucket. Maybe some others will weigh in with other ideas…
Sneezles61
To continue beating this dead horse, I came to the realization that the first time I tested the gravity 5 days after brewing, I most likely pulled in star San from the blowoff as well as the most recent gravity check this past Saturday.
I filled my ukeg and parked it in the fridge Saturday as well. Which would explain the low level of star San in my bucket even more.
Anyways, live and learn I guess. Never making that mistake again until the next time I do. Drinking the ukeg now, not half bad. Not great but ok. No hot boozyness, and the carbonation helps. I may ukeg again this weekend to see if it’s worth bottling.
It’s a real light carbonation, small head that fades quickly, but I feel the bubbles in my mouth. It uses little 8g co2 charges. Was hoping for more, but it’s helping me get an idea of where it’s going I guess
Annnnd upon a simple google search, it does take a ukeg 2-3 days to fully carb homebrew. It does taste different though. Put it on the soda setting cause I thought it wasn’t carbing enough. Took the extra bitter edge off at least. Glad you guys catch everything, cuz I sure don’t
